What is the Truth concerning the beginnings?
There are five main view points:
Growing up, our pastor wasn't particularly interested in the subject. He didn't really see it as important. We often discussed the various theories and their merits for the fun of it though. By high school, I would probably have said, "Oh, day-age is probably right, but there is no real way to know and it's not that important anyway."
I, like everyone else my age and younger, was taught all about evolution in school. Every TV show, especially the nature ones, assumed evolution to be correct and so made all their statements with that as their foundation. I wanted to believe the Bible but, well, everyone knew the earth was incredibly ancient, right? Science had proven that. And, anyway, salvation is what is important. So we had to accept a way to interpret the Bible that fit with evolution.
After one particular Bible study shortly after I married, where we discussed all this, I remember laying in bed with all the different arguments for each theory swirling around, keeping me awake. I just couldn't get settled. It was like I finally just had to know which was right.
While Hubby snored away, I felt God tell me to pull back and look at each one from "The Big Picture."
Hmmm, evolution doesn't need a God. He is redundant. There would be no point to His existence if evolution was true. What's more, there is no mention of anything remotely like evolution in the Bible so it becomes worthless, at least on this point. And a god who would use such a cruel, wasteful system is not worthy of praise. So the first question to be answered was really...
Did I believe there is a God?
I mentally explored what it would mean for there to be no God.
Simply not acceptable. I had talked with Him in my own heart. I have had too many prayers answered, seen too many miracles to ever except such an absurd idea. This ruled out not only atheistic evolution as even a possibility but Theistic evolution too. God is not redundant. God is not cruel.
The next question that came to my mind was "If I had never heard any theories about what these verses meant, what conclusion would I come to by simply reading them?"
The answer is very simple:
Period.
"Is this the proper way to interpret scripture? Don't we need to investigate and dig and find all the true meanings?"
Yes and no.
We should study The Word and use our concordances, of course. But when drawing conclusions after that study, we will ALWAYS run those facts through out "World View Glasses." How we look at facts is determined by our view of God and the Universe. Which definition of each word we think is correct is chosen on our per-conceived beliefs.
If Gap or Day-Age are true than the only way to really know what God is trying to tell us with the scripture is to either know the original languages and spend time dicing and dissecting the scriptures or to have a "High Priest of Linguistics" to explain it to us.
Jesus did away with the whole high priest idea, so that can't be right.
And the need to parse it all out in order to understand it?
What was the purpose God had for having this all written down in the first place? He didn't need notes to remember what He had done, so it must have been for our benefit. How much of a benefit is it too us if the millions of people who read it get the wrong idea unless they are "properly educated" or rich enough to have the right study tools and commentaries? What kind of God would intentionally deceive so many people, keeping the truth to Himself and only a few enlightened souls throughout history?
Not the kind of God I want to serve and not the kind of God described in the Bible.
Was the Bible written understandably and then just mistranslated?
Well, what kind of God wouldn't be able to make sure that His Word is translated correctly throughout the ages? Would the God of the Bible have made sure the whole thing, especially the versions the majority had access to throughout the ages, was translated right? Pretty wimpy god who couldn't do that.
And, ultimately, who gets honor and glory if any theory but Young Earth is true?
Human Beings
Who gets honor and Glory if Young Earth is True?
The Lord God Almighty
That night in my bed I decided I would believe the simply written word of God, even if I was the only one on planet earth who did. Even if all of science "proved" it to not be true.
I could no longer feel intellectually superior for having found something secret in the Bible, but, Oh, the weight that lifted from my soul!
God brings different people to truth through different paths. This was the one He chose for me.
Within a month of making that decision I found the first books I had ever seen written by SCIENTISTS (there are actually thousands!) who believed in Young Earth and had evidence to support their position (I firmly believe God hid them from me until I had accepted Him and His truth on faith).
Since than I have read hundreds of books, magazines, articles, etc by scientists, linguists, scholars and Theologians who came to the same conclusions I have come to, but through different paths. Most, in fact, seem to believe evolution until the scientific evidence is just too great to deny Young Earth any longer. And they tend to be from the hard sciences (biology, geology, chemistry, the sciences that can be absolutely proven) instead of the soft ones (psychology, anthropology, ones that are really just unprovable opinions).
So I'm not alone after all:-)
And I have come to the conclusion that this is the most vital subject of the Bible.
If the Bible is true in its simplest reading, then...
The very foundation, then, of Christianity, the very salvation of our souls depends on God's revelation of Creation in scripture. His authority as Judge and Savior rests in it.
Today, all information is filtered through my knowledge of the Bible. If what I read disagrees with the Bible, it must be wrong no matter how good it sounds. The Bible is the ultimate measure of truth. Period.
Since that night I have read the entire Bible cover to cover somewhere around 20 times in five different versions, plus I regularly check up to 15 versions in my Bible studies. I can honestly tell you that just reading the Bible would never have put such ideas as day-age, gap, or theistic evolution in my mind. These ideas came straight from self appointed "priests of linguistics" who were trying to twist the Bible to fit evolution. No one would come up with these ideas directly from the Bible itself.
If you disagree with my approach, you need to check out what your ultimate measure of truth is. Is it Science? Popular opinion? What is weirdest rules? What if these disagree directly with the Bible? Which do you decide to believe? And how exactly does God fit into that? What is the purpose of the Bible? You have a lot of hard questions to ask yourself.
Would I consider changing my mind? Sure. But first priority is God and the Bible. You must start with proving that your theory doesn't violate the Biblical description of God and His character. Everything else is wishy-washy human reasoning which is constantly changing anyway.
Why does the universe look so old?
(Oh, and by the way, I eventually convinced my pastor and Hubby that Young Earth Creation was true:-)
There are five main view points:
- Atheistic Evolution (there is no God)
- Theistic Evolution (God controlled evolution)
- The Gap (millions of years between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 where evolution and a bunch of other stuff occurred, God wiped it all out and remolded it in vs 2)
- Day-Age (each of the 6 days of creation were millions of years long)
- Young Earth (God made the whole shu-bang in six 24 hour days.)
Growing up, our pastor wasn't particularly interested in the subject. He didn't really see it as important. We often discussed the various theories and their merits for the fun of it though. By high school, I would probably have said, "Oh, day-age is probably right, but there is no real way to know and it's not that important anyway."
I, like everyone else my age and younger, was taught all about evolution in school. Every TV show, especially the nature ones, assumed evolution to be correct and so made all their statements with that as their foundation. I wanted to believe the Bible but, well, everyone knew the earth was incredibly ancient, right? Science had proven that. And, anyway, salvation is what is important. So we had to accept a way to interpret the Bible that fit with evolution.
After one particular Bible study shortly after I married, where we discussed all this, I remember laying in bed with all the different arguments for each theory swirling around, keeping me awake. I just couldn't get settled. It was like I finally just had to know which was right.
While Hubby snored away, I felt God tell me to pull back and look at each one from "The Big Picture."
Hmmm, evolution doesn't need a God. He is redundant. There would be no point to His existence if evolution was true. What's more, there is no mention of anything remotely like evolution in the Bible so it becomes worthless, at least on this point. And a god who would use such a cruel, wasteful system is not worthy of praise. So the first question to be answered was really...
Did I believe there is a God?
I mentally explored what it would mean for there to be no God.
Simply not acceptable. I had talked with Him in my own heart. I have had too many prayers answered, seen too many miracles to ever except such an absurd idea. This ruled out not only atheistic evolution as even a possibility but Theistic evolution too. God is not redundant. God is not cruel.
The next question that came to my mind was "If I had never heard any theories about what these verses meant, what conclusion would I come to by simply reading them?"
The answer is very simple:
God made the Universe in six 24 hours days and rested the seventh.
Period.
"Is this the proper way to interpret scripture? Don't we need to investigate and dig and find all the true meanings?"
Yes and no.
We should study The Word and use our concordances, of course. But when drawing conclusions after that study, we will ALWAYS run those facts through out "World View Glasses." How we look at facts is determined by our view of God and the Universe. Which definition of each word we think is correct is chosen on our per-conceived beliefs.
If Gap or Day-Age are true than the only way to really know what God is trying to tell us with the scripture is to either know the original languages and spend time dicing and dissecting the scriptures or to have a "High Priest of Linguistics" to explain it to us.
Jesus did away with the whole high priest idea, so that can't be right.
And the need to parse it all out in order to understand it?
What was the purpose God had for having this all written down in the first place? He didn't need notes to remember what He had done, so it must have been for our benefit. How much of a benefit is it too us if the millions of people who read it get the wrong idea unless they are "properly educated" or rich enough to have the right study tools and commentaries? What kind of God would intentionally deceive so many people, keeping the truth to Himself and only a few enlightened souls throughout history?
Not the kind of God I want to serve and not the kind of God described in the Bible.
Was the Bible written understandably and then just mistranslated?
Well, what kind of God wouldn't be able to make sure that His Word is translated correctly throughout the ages? Would the God of the Bible have made sure the whole thing, especially the versions the majority had access to throughout the ages, was translated right? Pretty wimpy god who couldn't do that.
And, ultimately, who gets honor and glory if any theory but Young Earth is true?
Human Beings
Who gets honor and Glory if Young Earth is True?
The Lord God Almighty
That night in my bed I decided I would believe the simply written word of God, even if I was the only one on planet earth who did. Even if all of science "proved" it to not be true.
I could no longer feel intellectually superior for having found something secret in the Bible, but, Oh, the weight that lifted from my soul!
God brings different people to truth through different paths. This was the one He chose for me.
Within a month of making that decision I found the first books I had ever seen written by SCIENTISTS (there are actually thousands!) who believed in Young Earth and had evidence to support their position (I firmly believe God hid them from me until I had accepted Him and His truth on faith).
Since than I have read hundreds of books, magazines, articles, etc by scientists, linguists, scholars and Theologians who came to the same conclusions I have come to, but through different paths. Most, in fact, seem to believe evolution until the scientific evidence is just too great to deny Young Earth any longer. And they tend to be from the hard sciences (biology, geology, chemistry, the sciences that can be absolutely proven) instead of the soft ones (psychology, anthropology, ones that are really just unprovable opinions).
So I'm not alone after all:-)
And I have come to the conclusion that this is the most vital subject of the Bible.
If the Bible is true in its simplest reading, then...
- God made the world from nothing in 6 days.
- He has the right, as Maker, to set the rules.
- All humans have rebelled against those rules.
- All rebels will go to hell.
- God provided a way out of hell by paying the price for our rebellion Himself on The Cross.
- We must accept this gift for it to be applied to us.
- There is NO other way to Heaven.
- No one, especially not some ghost floating around in space, has a right to set any rules. If this is all just an accident no one has any ultimate authority.
- There is no absolute right and wrong. There is no sin, just what works for each individual.
- There is no need for salvation.
The very foundation, then, of Christianity, the very salvation of our souls depends on God's revelation of Creation in scripture. His authority as Judge and Savior rests in it.
Today, all information is filtered through my knowledge of the Bible. If what I read disagrees with the Bible, it must be wrong no matter how good it sounds. The Bible is the ultimate measure of truth. Period.
Since that night I have read the entire Bible cover to cover somewhere around 20 times in five different versions, plus I regularly check up to 15 versions in my Bible studies. I can honestly tell you that just reading the Bible would never have put such ideas as day-age, gap, or theistic evolution in my mind. These ideas came straight from self appointed "priests of linguistics" who were trying to twist the Bible to fit evolution. No one would come up with these ideas directly from the Bible itself.
If you disagree with my approach, you need to check out what your ultimate measure of truth is. Is it Science? Popular opinion? What is weirdest rules? What if these disagree directly with the Bible? Which do you decide to believe? And how exactly does God fit into that? What is the purpose of the Bible? You have a lot of hard questions to ask yourself.
Would I consider changing my mind? Sure. But first priority is God and the Bible. You must start with proving that your theory doesn't violate the Biblical description of God and His character. Everything else is wishy-washy human reasoning which is constantly changing anyway.
Why does the universe look so old?
(Oh, and by the way, I eventually convinced my pastor and Hubby that Young Earth Creation was true:-)
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